CSI, the reunion: “Things happen beyond thoughts”
“What needs to happen, happens”. In the House of Culture and Memory of Marzabottothe scene of a sadly notorious Nazi massacre during the Second World War, today a place steeped in memories, pain and sacredness, between the rocks of the Apennines and the icy water of the Rhinethe tape of almost thirty years is rewound: this is where the CSIs announce their return. On the panels that reveal the reunion just two words: “Travelling”the title of one of their songs and a state of mind. Giovanni Lindo Ferretti, Massimo Zamboni, Gianni Maroccolo, Giorgio Canali, Francesco Magnelli and Ginevra Di Marcochildren of those lands between Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, “raised on the Gothic Line” as Ferretti repeats, look into each other’s eyes with amazement.
Perhaps not even themselves, almost thirty years later “Tabula rasa electrificata”, their last album from 1997, which reached a legendary first place in the charts for an Italian rock bandthey truly believe they have found each other. Historical courses and recurrences: after the rebirth of CCCP, comes that of the Consorzio Suonatori Indipendenti, which arose from the ashes of the punk group: here is the tour 2026. Few and sought after dates, in symbolic places for training. This will also be the opportunity to shoot a film on the history of the CSI, an idea born from Valerio Mastandrea: the project, involving a soundtrack, could push the group to create new music.
The introduction to the presentation of the reunion tour can only be entrusted to Stefano Senardi, “he is the one who created the CSI”, says Ferrettiwho in 1997, when he was president of Polygram Italia, was also the record company behind their record ranking: “CSI are giving us a dive into the future. My meeting with them took place in 1993. As soon as I saw them and met them in Polygram I understood that they were truly independent, even from each other, different in many aspects, musical, human and political. They and Franco Battiato have given a sense of quality to my professional life. They wrote unique songs. The beauty of the CSI has always been in the union between individualities. And their strength has always been to reset and reset themselves. Here they are, again, at the gates of a new journey.”
Where does this reunion come from?
Ferretti: The essential is made up of the things that happen. Many were wondering: but if CCCP returns, will CSI return too? I thought it was an abomination just to imagine it. CCCP’s last concert in 2025 was in Taormina and there I asked myself the problem and sent a message to my friends from CSI: “let’s see each other, I’ll be there if you want”. We met for lunch, we were united by a deep sense of gratitude. At that point Maroccolo speaks: “Mastandrea says that if the CSIs come back, we have to make a documentary.” Zamboni calls me a few days later, we meet at the bar and tells me that a request has arrived to play at a festival in Mongolia, a land to which CSI are inextricably linked.
Did you take them as signs of destiny?
Ferretti: Things happen beyond thoughts. The CSIs today return to how they were born: we went, today as then, to Senardi without having anything in our hands and he helped us. Maroccolo sent us an idea for a setlist that started with “In viaggio”, a piece that I hated: when I only listened to the music I said “give this one to Baglioni or I don’t know who”. Having found the words, written the lyrics, I then realized that on stage it was transformed into a great song. At Easter this year, after having rejected the idea of starting the lineup in Morocco, I heard the Pope say that “we are on the way”. And so “In viaggio” today is a tour, it is a film and it is also the first song you will listen to in the setlist.
Do you foresee new music?
Ferretti: The tour will not be in big cities, but in sui generis places, linked to us. Since there is a film scheduled and since we will have to do the soundtrack, who knows… maybe something new will emerge, some new song, who knows…
Your songs have been able to clearly describe a world of ruins. Do they have the same communicative power today?
Ferretti: We have always talked about the difficulties of living, without ideologies. “Cupe vampe” tells the story of the destruction of the Sarajevo library during the war of those years, we talked about the things around us. I don’t know what it will be like to do a piece like that today, but that deep sadness has remained, the world hasn’t changed, in fact perhaps it’s gotten worse.
Zamboni: We went to the ruins of Monte Sole to take the usual photos for this return. Right there where there was a terrible massacre, but we didn’t do them. We remained silent and left. Silence rightly won. The world must not be told, it must be told.
Do you feel some sort of responsibility?
Ferretti: We sang “Don’t make an idol of me, I’ll burn myself. If I become a megaphone, I’ll jam.” You can’t ask a group to indicate how the world is going, we are only as good as those on the other side. The only thing I want is not to demean the mystery of life, it’s the only responsibility I feel.
Who were CSI and why did they disband?
Morocco: They were more than a musical group, they managed to have a more universal language and to talk about the contemporary in a special way. The CCCP had a strong iconographic component, they were also misunderstood for this, they were considered “just a left-wing group”, but this was not the case. The CSIs have gone beyond ideologies. But they didn’t break up because of the famous first place in 1997, but because we were worn out.
Magnelli: The tour of the arenas, that of the “large numbers” was complex. Some stopped me and said: “what a crazy live”. But that wasn’t true, many facilities had terrible acoustics and this affected our mood. Having said that there is no “reason” for the dissolution, it was a chain of events.
What should CSI concerts be like in 2026?
Ferretti: The concerts will have to be a wall of sound from which voices and words will have to emerge. We haven’t worked on the setlist yet, we only know that “In viaggio” will be the first song because we are all literally on a journey.
By Marco: I’m interested in the place that the CSIs can create. A non-repeatable space will be created on that stage. The concerts will have a fair price, they will not go beyond 48 euros including presale rights. OTR did a great job, a nice gesture towards us and towards the people. Live shows don’t have to be elitist events.
CSI were part of a real rock scene and pushed several bands including Marlene Kuntz, Üstmamò and Disciplinatha. Today what remains of that world?
Ferretti: We are veterans. Now the music is a background, it has lost its sacredness. Music at the time had a different value, we were a consortium, there was a scene, it’s true, but now everything has changed. Senardi was the president of a major, there were the right figures in the right places. Now people listen to music on cell phones. I don’t listen to music, I don’t have any instruments to listen to it, I’m interested in CSI and I know what they can do.
Morocco: I produced the last album three years ago, a work by Edda. The mutations must be understood, today I no longer have the strength to set up a factory and a new disruptive avant-garde capable of creating a shock has yet to arrive. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t interesting music: I really like Iosonouncane and the group Stato Brado.
Ferretti, there are still those who have not digested the conversion and the political positions close to the right. Will this have any bearing on re-proposing certain songs?
Ferretti: Mine is a life lived, I see linearity in everything I have done and said, always aware that “you don’t stay the same”, you grow, you change. I don’t see any sensational ruptures, my conversion, for example, was the most obvious thing that could have happened because I grew up in a Christian environment, then I moved away from it and finally I returned. I can’t please everyone, I don’t want misunderstandings with the people I love, with others I take it into account.
Why is it right to be here today, together?
Zamboni: I wondered if this tour could distance me from my records and my books, but this story is part of me. I thought a reunion was a nightmare, imagine when I hear about “new music” (smiles, ed.). I’m already telling you that it will be difficult, I won’t let it be easy to make it happen because I have my own precise idea about all this.
Channels: I’ve made different music in all these years, I’ve made music that would alienate CSI fans, I wanted it to be like that. But when I realized that those who advised me not to participate in a CSI reunion, taking advantage of Giovanni’s participation in Atreju or something else, were actually part of a group of haters, I said “fuck you, I say yes to CSI”.
